Friday, March 02, 2007

During Web1 I had several battles with students who felt that Web Design was only HTML based programming. Video, wikis, blogs, etc...were "extras". I think I convinced most that "web design" is a moving target. It is quickly adapting to a mobile, collaborative form.

Further evidence continues to arrive. Read this post about the growth of wikis and blogs in the workplace. Experts predict that 50% of companies will use wiki technology by the year 2009. A few notes about that:

1. If half the companies are using wiki/blogs I hypothesize that it is the better performing companies. Companies that do not use technology are probably "old school" in many other areas as well and risk falling behind in our global marketplace.2. Our SHS freshman will graduate college no earlier than 2014. Will wikis and blogs be essential by then? The article speaks about companies replacing their traditional web sites with the wikis and blogs. Will Dreamweaver/HTML disappear by the time our freshman leave high school? I think so. But the communication skills (summarizing, analyzing, editing, etc...) will become even more important.

I think this has extreme implications for our modern student. If the workplace of 2009 will be largely wiki and blog based how should that shape your work at SHS? I think there is a lot of work to be done.

This is your future. Demand an education that prepares you for it. Find new technology and embrace it.

I will be formatting your projects very soon. But let me be clear---I will allow you to work on almost anything you want while you are in this class as long as you fulfill our objectives (see blogmeister). If you have an alternate assignment for any of our objectives please offer them. If there is something you want to pursue--do it!!